England vs Pakistan: Mark Wood returns as if he'd never been away to help England off to winning start

Nine months after his last appearance for England, Wood looked at home as he bowled in excess of 90mph to give Pakistan something new to think about

Mark Wood successfully appeals for a wicket during England's victory over Pakistan (Getty)

Returning to the side after a lengthy absence is rarely seamless though you’d have been pushed to think otherwise as Mark Wood strutted his stuff at the Ageas bowl, adorned once more with the three lions of England.

Missing from the national side with injury since last November, Wood has always tended to add value to attacks with his aggressive fast bowling. Not that he ran through Pakistan in the opening match of the Royal London one-day series. His 10 overs brought him one for 57, which is a shade below his career economy rate in 50-over internationals.

Handed the new ball by captain, Eoin Morgan, the spring in Wood’s step was discernible. He worked up a good head of speed too, something lacking in England's Test team at present. One ball was clocked at 93mph but he hovered regularly around the 90mph-mark, always a handy thing when trying to keep batsmen quiet.

He struck in his third over, a well-directed bouncer finding the edge of Sharjeel Khan’s flailing bat. England’s bowling coach, Ottis Gibson, has always liked his fast bowlers to get batsmen sniffing the leather, a philosophy Wood appears to share with equal relish.

Gibson’s preferences notwithstanding, some onlookers in Southampton were puzzled that he was preferred here to Chris Jordan. After all, under Duncan Fletcher’s totting-up system for valuing one-day cricketers, Jordan bowls, bats and fields with equal aplomb whereas Wood, despite taking a neat catch at mid-off, is really only a bowler.

Falling foul of logic does not mean falling out of favour and you get the impression that England’s decision-makers like Wood, and like him for being different. Not only is he wholehearted he is unconventional in both thought and deed. Not many fast bowlers below the six foot mark are effective, but from the Olympian push-off to his run-up, to his explosive action, he departs the norm in almost every way.

He also has a reputation for being a bit of a joker, gold dust in a dressing-room environment where tension can be as destructive as the opposition. You need to have a deft touch, though, something his prank on Christine Ohurougu definitely lacked after he sprang from a wheelie bin carefully placed outside her billet. If you are wondering what that was all about, England’s athletes and cricketers were sharing the same training camp in South Africa two years ago and the boredom obviously overcame him. The episode, in ultra low fidelity, can be found on Youtube.

England celebrate after Mark Wood took the wicket of Pakistan batsman Sharjeel Khan (Getty)

Now 26, the possible impediments he faces to enjoying a lengthy career come from his action. As a rule, skiddy bowlers tend to be less effective and more hittable than their taller counterparts, though he tries to prevent batsmen setting themselves for the big shot by judicious use of the bouncer.

The other problem could come from the dynamic crunch of his action, a type that tends to take heavier toll on the body than those which use a more gradual build up to gain their pace. His most recent injuries, which required two bouts of surgery, were two impingements on his left ankle (front and back) - the one that he bangs down, splayed outwards (another quirk), to help generate his blistering pace. Yet, just to compound matters, he is allergic to sticking plaster, which is what most physios use to bind a bowler’s ankles in order to support them.

Although he keeps his bowling arm straight, what he does is not dissimilar to a javelin thrower save in one major regard. A javelin thrower throws a maximum of six times in competition and probably 12-15 times in practice. By contrast, Wood sent down 60 balls here after bowling another dozen or so in the nets beforehand. He will do the same on Saturday and twice again the following week, body permitting.

He is unusual in another regard, too, in that his Economy rate of 5.8, while pretty good for a bowler who bowls in the Powerplays and occasionally at the death, has been achieved without any big hauls of wickets.

The modern wisdom is that it is wickets which keep the run-rate down but Wood, who has never taken more than a single wicket in any of his eight one-day internationals, manages to do it by other means. Which makes the one for 57 here vintage Mark Wood, and you can’t quibble with that for a comeback performance.